Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Television Expansion Foreseen WITH EXPECTED PRODUCTION OF $200 HOME RECEIVER. NEW SERVICE WILL EXTEND TO 152 KEY CITIES OF LI. S. WITHIN FIVE VEARS AFTER WAR, REACH 60":, OF NATIONS PEOPLE. JOYCE BELIEVES WITHIN five years after com- mercial resumption of tele- vision, sight and sound pi-ograms, broadcast by network and individ- ual stations in 157 key cities, will be available to 60 percent of the people of the United States if the radio industry can produce a tele- vision home receiver priced at ap- proximately $200. This was forecast by Thomas F. Joyce, Manager of the Radio, Pho- nograph and Television Department of the Radio Corporation of Amer- ica, speaking recently before a joint meeting of the American Television Society and the Advertising Club of New York. "Such a receiver, I believe, is pos- sible," he said, "based on 1940 labor and material costs, and assuming no excise taxes. Of course, the post- war price would be increased by the factors of inflation and excise taxes." In a clear-cut analysis of postwar television markets, marked by a strict adherence to practicalities and known facts, Mr. Joyce declared that the number one problem of the postwar television industry was an acceptable low cost radio television receiver. He cited an 11-city survey which showed that more than 61 per cent of men and women questioned said they would buy a good televi- sion receiver priced at $200. Within ten years after full com- mercialization of visual broadcast- ing, Mr. Joyce declared, television will be a billion dollar industry. Thi.s, he said, is based on the devel- opment of a low cost automatic re- broadcasting television transmitter to relay programs in areas outside the scope of the key network sta- tions. "Such a development will make it economically feasible to bring tele- vision service to practically every home in the United States," he said, adding that at that time retail bill- ing of television sales should be between six and seven hundred mil- lion dollars. "This billing," the RCA executive stated, "together with replacement tubes for existing receivers, serv- ice, transmitter sales, advertising revenue, and other items, will make television the billion dollar industry that many have prophesied it will be." In presenting this picture of the postwar television market, however, Mr. Joyce warned against any rad- ical changes in standards that would make the $200 television re- ceiver improbable, at least for the immediate postwar period. His estimates on the probable postwar rate of market development for television, he explained, is based on a complete agreement on stand- ards approved by the Federal Com- munications Commission, which would give the industry the "green light" to go ahead without any "ifs." "It has been assumed for estimat- ing purposes," he said, "that there will be no changes in the standards or in the place which television oc- cupies in the broadcasting spec- trum, which might substantially delay the start of television or bring about more complicated engineer- ing and manufacturing." The nucleus of a television net- work has already been started, Mr. Joyce pointed out to the audience of top ranking television experts and advertising executives. Programs THIS MAP SHOWS A POTENTIAL POST-WAR TELEVISION NETWORK AS PROJECTED BY THOMAS F. JOYCE IN A RECENT ADDRESS IN NEW Y'ORK. SOLID LINES INDICATE AN INITIAL NETWORK, AND THE BROKEN LINES SHOW HOW IT COULD BE EXPANDED. WIS ,,„, ^ ATLANTIC TELEVISION NETWORK MID-WEST TRUNK-LINE NETWORK / \ a? /^ \ . /MS \ , SCHENECTADY MILWAUKEEp \ 'I <^ ^ ^ V \ j DETROITQ CHICAGO 6 / 7 nn/di'Tiim P* \\ jTOLEDO ^%; PITTSBURGH ! * i COLUMBUS i-O- INDIANAPOLISjK j ^^''^^^^J^-^r^^ Mmj\mif -:' \ IpTciNCINNATI ^^^^•iffi sirouis 1^ ^JO LOUISVILLE BOSTON p'rovidence NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA / RADIO AGE 23